Denton Effect
by Sckewer
Summary: An AU where the events of Deus Ex the conspiracy predate the discovery of Mass Relays, and JC Denton survives through techno babble in a coma until being revived by the Cerberus Lazarus Project instead of John Shepard.
1. Chapter 1

Deus Ex characters and Mass Effect characters are property of Eidos and Bioware EA respectively.

Denton Effect:

Awakening

I woke to a world of pain, my eyes not yet open, my consciousness just registering, a male voice, "isn't Sheppard! He's coming to, sedate him!" As my consciousness drifted off again, I heard a female voice "this is bad."

Explosions jerked me to alertness, and I rolled off the bed or operating table that I found myself in, cursing the stiffness of my body, before that female voice from before came into my ear piece, "whoever you are, you have to wake up, grab the pistol and the armour to the left of the operating table and get moving." Mentally thanking her for telling me where to look I complied, along with her order immediately after to find cover from the imminent explosion of the door.

It wasn't until she instructed me to fire this pistol on a bot that I began to question the usefulness of this woman's advice. Last time I checked a pistol was about as useful as my bare hands against a bot, maybe even less if I could find some bio electric cells, even one this small. Either pistol technology had advanced a lot, since, come to think of it how did I end up here? Seeing no handy vents or even narrow passages, and a bot that was slowly but surely eliminating the protection of the short wall I'd ducked behind, I decided to take her advice and aim for the head, after all the last pistol I used never needed a heat sink, maybe they had improved. To my shock not only did this knock out the bot's sensor array, it caused a full system failure, and not the kind that resulted in bullets being fired in every direction. If I lived through this I was going to make a killing in designing security robots.

After I found what looked like a slightly advanced GEP gun, I was finally feeling secure about my odds of surviving at least until my unknown helper lost contact and I was left to find my own way out of wherever I was. I did find some safes with some credits that would prove helpful to my current long term plans, if not my short term plans. I also learned that someone else had spent a fortune on me, this time to bring me back to life, I would have worried about how I died but I was more concerned with not repeating that experience before finding out where I was. At least it was only a metaphorical fresh hell.

Not long after I ran into a man named Jacob Taylor, who showed off something he called Biotics, ripping a few bots off a far catwalk to their doom. He looked like a capable soldier, so I figured it'd be good to stick with him for now, More importantly he gave me a name to go with that voice, Miranda, the head of this project Lazarus if I remembered right from the data I'd hacked.

Wilson then piped in over the coms, and was suspiciously shocked to learn that I was with Jacob. He knew a safe route to the shuttle off this station, but was in a bit trouble at the moment, so I guess we were just going to have to help him. When we found him, my suspicious metre started going off the charts, he was a research tech, come to think of it I remembered hearing his voice, with clearance for the security bots? He claimed he was trying to shut them down, but glancing at the screen I could only see countdown, I couldn't find out what for before the terminal shorted out. Jacob seemed to buy the story, I kept my mouth shut for now.

Jacob also chose this moment to tell me they were working for an organisation called Cerberus, to try and win my trust, I guess. Seeing my confusion Jacob explained that Cerberus was an organisation devoted to putting humans on top, through sometimes extreme methods. He tried to reassure me that these weren't the bad guys, but between the name of the organisation and the leader, The Illusive Man, I was willing to place a wager that if the Illuminaty were still around this Illusive Man used to be one, but wasn't content to just pull the puppet strings any more.

Wilson's own survival instinct and skills proved to be an asset, just the same I felt the need to knock him out with the butt of my pistol after he told me the shuttle was just through this door. Jacob was less than pleased, until Miranda Lawson, who looked every bit the femme fatale, showed up and confirmed that Wilson was behind all the bots going nuts. Having a hunch about why Wilson was in such a hurry to get off this station I decided not to bother arguing about Miranda's travel plans.

The mystery of the countdown was solved when the space station exploded just after we got off in the shuttle. Miranda was unmoved by this, focusing instead on me "Who are you?"

"Miranda, its Sheppard, or did you get hit on the head by one of the bots?" Jacob had assumed that the Lazarus project had been without incident, and I hadn't really had time to tell him otherwise plus he followed orders from this Sheppard person without asking questions.

"He's not Sheppard the recovery team brought us back the wrong person, that's probably why Wilson was trying to kill him, destroy the evidence of failure," Miranda seethed.

Well so much for that free ticket, trying for an identity that would explain my skill with a weapon, "Gunnery chief Williams, ma'am," I lied with a salute.

"I had no idea you were so butch Ashley. Cut the crap," Miranda then punched a needle into my thigh and took a blood sample, "we'll find out who you are soon enough."

"So just who was this Sheppard person and why was he important enough to spend billions in an attempt to revive him." I asked to the shock of Jacob and horror of Miranda.

Jacob was the first to recover, "he was the first Human Spectre, saved the citadel from Saren and the Geth."

"You mean to tell me that you've never heard of Sheppard, oh this is going to be just lovely. When I get my hands on that blue tramp-"

"Think of it this way, the Illusive Man will have to put you in charge of the operation now, its not like he can wait another two years with all those colonies disappearing."

"That's assuming he doesn't see my stupidity in not checking the body from the start. Still I suppose you're right"

"Or we could just not tell him," Jacob suggested.

"He's seen pictures of Sheppard, and he can recognise faces, a skill you apparently lack,." Miranda responded coldly, "we'll just have to hope that our friend's field test impresses the Illusive man."

After the blood work showed that I was JC Denton, the second Nano Augmented agent of UNATCO, the Illusive man decided that he'd like to meet me. So I was escorted into a room with a holographic projector. The hologram that I saw reminded me a bit of Bob Paige only without the wires running along his forehead.

"Mr. Denton I presume, I'll be honest with you, I don't know if you are JC Denton or not, and frankly I don't care. You cost us more than you know Denton. Sheppard wasn't just a man, he was a symbol that we could have used to unite the galaxy against the coming dark, but now we're stuck with you, a relic from the past. If there were time I'd have Miranda dissect you and find out just how you survived for so long, but we didn't have time when we started the Lazarus project, we certainly don't have it now. Human colonies have been disappearing, I don't know why or how."

"I assume you want my help investigating, but how do I know you're not behind this?"

"I don't know how much you know about this organisation but we put humans first, why would we abduct humans."

"Just because you put humans on top doesn't mean you don't want to climb over their backs, in my experience that's why people like you want them there in the first place."

"You can accuse me all you want, but the fact of the matter is that I'm not your enemy, the Reapers are out there and if they can't be stopped, well even I can't rule over the dead can I."

"The enemy of my enemy and all that? What makes you think I won't just walk away the first chance I get?" If he'd put a new kill switch in me I was going to have to find someone who could turn it off, but it'd be good to know it was there before he used it.

"Where would you go? You've been gone a long time and how many people are going to believe that JC Denton, a man who was involved in curing the Gray Death, is still alive and walking around. Even if they do believe you are JC Denton, its just as likely they'll see you as terrorist instead of a heroI'm the only friend you have, and besides you owe me. Miranda and Jacob were both impressed with your skills, so you'll be working under Miranda's command. We just lost contact with another colony, hopefully Miranda can get there before the Alliance can cover it up, grab some supplies and get moving. Consider this your chance to prove that we didn't waste our time on you Denton."

Exiting the room I found a clothing synthesiser, which I used to make a long black coat and some sun glasses, old habits die hard. I added an assault rifle, sniper rifle, and a nifty looking sword to my equipment before heading to the shuttle. Miranda handed me some bio electic cells when I climbed into the shuttle. "So I guess you're my commander."

"Well you've proven that you can get the job done, but don't think I'll go easy on the new kid. We're here to do a job, the odds of survivors are slim, so don't even bother looking for them, focus on looking for cameras and anything that might give us some clue about what happened. It'll be night time planet side so you should probably take those shades off," was Miss Lawson's idea of a briefing.

"I can see just fine with them on, ma'am," I defended.

Stepping out of the shuttle was surreal. I'd never seen any place so quiet and empty, and there were no signs of combat, at all, ever. Whoever was here didn't struggle on the way out. We could be forgiven then for being taken by surprise by the bots that had been reprogrammed after the mass exodus. Still they were easily taken down, and now the bot designs were getting even more peculiar, resembling canines with zero ranged weapons, and no extra armour. I was half tempted to use my fists to give the bots a fair fight.

It wasn't long before we found out we weren't the only ones investigating this colony. Four Quarians were looking for a fellow Quarian, perhaps this wouldn't be another dead end for Cerberus. It was Miranda who spoke first "I see the scavengers waste no time in the Terminus system."

A male Quarian, I thought, I wasn't quite sure on xeno gender physiology, took offense "we're not here for this colony's trash, Cerberus."

"Then why are you here?" Miranda queried.

"Cerberus' nose doesn't belong in Quarian business." The Quarian hissed.

Only to be promptly rebuked by the female Quarian "Prazza please, we can't get past all the bots alone, we need their help to get to Veetor as much as they need ours."

"But they're Cerberus, with their help who needs enemies." The male stated his case.

Miranda tried to defuse the situation, "we need to find out if this Veetor saw anything, we have a mutual goal."

"Our goal is to protect one of our own, yours is to interrogate that one," the male Quarian proclaimed, as everyone except the female Quarian pulled guns on each other.

"Whoever walks away from this stand-off is gonna be left holding the bag for this colonies disappearance you realise?" I tried to cool everyone's head, looking to the female Quarian "can you promise to give us any information this Veetor might have if we let you take him home?"

"Like they'd tell us anything, no we can't just give him up, we need to know that we're getting all of the answers." Miranda cut in.

"I think we've done enough to the Quarians without adding kidnapping another one to the list Miranda," Jacob countered "besides Denton and the Quarian," as he gestured to the female "are right we need to work together."

"Like we'd trust the word of Cerberus anyway," Prazza accused.

"We don't have a choice and we are wasting time, lets get moving," the female spoke, adding "I Tali Vas Neema promise to give Denton whatever information about this colony I uncover."

That settled the matter for the Quarians it seemed, as they lowered their weapons, the one called Prazza a little more slowly than the rest. Our truce held up until we were out of sight of each other, when Tali informed me that Prazza had decided to make a race of it, not trusting my companions and I, not that I blamed him. This proved to be a costly error on his part as he rushed into a bot that he wasn't equipped to deal with. Luckily Miranda Jacob and I were not to far away, it was just behind the door, and since I had the grenade launcher I got to be on point.

I was expecting just another bot, but this one was actually well designed, big and well armed with a machine gun and a rocket launcher. To make matters worse it had a point defence system that took out the grenade I tried to fire at it a little to close for comfort. Well someone had to get it right sooner or later, I thought bitterly as I just barely got back under cover before the machine gun could be turned on me. Things were not looking good as we could barely move without risking being either shredded by the machine gun or pulverised by the cannon. Even when we could get a shot in, it would barely chip the paint.

I decided it was time to do something stupid. Activating my heat suppressing nanites I began to make my way around the behemoth praying that it relied on infer-red sensors, I was going to need to get way closer than was healthy. When I could reach out and touch the machines back I pulled out that nifty sword hoping they'd improved as much as pistols, and switched my nanites to nano fibral muscles as I drove the blade down, hardening my skin as soon as the power core was exposed. It didn't stop me from being sent hard into a metal crate, but it did give Miranda and Jacob a target as it turned to focus on me. Lucky for me they were quick to throw everything they had at the exposed power core and bring the bot down before its machine guns could punch through my shields. I switched my nanites to their repair routines and fell back against crate.

After my body returned to a state that was only slightly better than dead I took a scan of the bots weapons, I was still planning to get out from under the Illusive man after all. Then we went into the only shed we hadn't looted yet and found Veetor sitting in front of a security terminal focused on the screens and talking gibberish. Miranda wasn't in the mood for it and shot one of the screens to get his attention.

"You're human... how did you escape the collectors?"

"We just got here," Miranda answered crisply.

"Can you tell us what happened," Jacob cut in.

"I can show you," Veetor responded as he brought up security footage he must have pieced together, witnessing it again only served to sever his grasp on reality as he went back into gibberish. The screens showed a swarm of bugs descend upon the colony and swarm the colonists immobilizing them instantly, which explained how they'd disappeared without a trace. Once all the colonists were immobilised a huge ship landed disgorging the captors with their large black eyes and exoskeletons. Tali came in at this time.

"Come on Veetor, I'm taking you back to the Flotilla," Tali pronounced.

"We'll need to hold onto him and see what else he knows." Miranda countered.

"We had a deal, Prazza and his men were stupid but Veetor needs to get back to the Flotilla an interrogation in his condition will only make things worse."

Deciding that having an alien around Cerberus might give me at least one person I could voice my concerns to I tried to recruit her,"we could bring you along if it'd ease your mind."

"You gave me your word, would you back out now and take us both?" Obviously concerned since it was three against two and one of those was not all there.

"No, I only meant that she's in charge and if she says he goes, well..." I trailed off realising that Cerberus had an even worse reputation than I thought, and this line wasn't helping. I turned to Miranda "do you really think he knows any more than we've learned from the video, is it enough to bring the attention of the Flotilla upon Cerberus?"

"No, I suppose not, and we probably don't have the time to make sense of the video and his gibberish," Miranda backed down.

"Thank you Denton, it's good to know some people in Cerberus can see reason," with that she handed a copy of the data from Veetor's omni tool to me and left with Veetor. Miranda was not going to leave so peacefully.

"I should leave you here for that," she barked in my direction. "Or would you prefer that I send you with Tali to look out for our interests in the Quarian. Do you think they'd treat you special, or that they'd interrogate you.

"What they would do, and what we should do are separate things." I reasoned.

"He could have told us something important about those creatures, but now we'll probably never know will we."

"Tali gave us her word."

"What does the word of a Quarian even mean, you do know they have a different culture than earth, they're nomads the two of you are unlikely to ever cross paths again, so why would they bother with honour."

"The galaxy's not so big that the migrant fleet can afford to burn bridges."

"Whoa, guys lets just report back to the Illusive Man, we can argue about interspecies politics later." Jacob attempted to placate the two of us.

I was ushered into another meeting with the Illusive Man in his illusionary world, with his illusionary reports. "Well, Denton, it seems I may have been wrong, maybe we didn't waste our time reviving you. 1 mission in and already we know more about what we're up against then we had learned in the entire time it took to revive you. I'd offer you a bonus but you've made it clear that you want nothing to do with us. Has that changed now that you've seen what you saw, I wonder?"

"Why is it that you're the only team willing to play ball if the threats really so big, if you don't mind my asking?"

"The other races want to believe that only humanity is threatened, after all humans haven't exactly been winning friends since the mass relays were discovered. Besides we're the new kids on the block and already have a seat on the council. They're a bunch of old races who just want the youngsters to stay off their lawn. Depending on who you ask."

"What about humanity, don't they have a military any more?"

"The Alliance is busy running the council, so bogged down in bureaucracy its a wonder they even reach the colonies at all. Look, if you want to see about joining another team when Miranda heads into the citadel be my guest, after all I'm not so naive to think Cerberus or even humanity can face the reapers alone, but don't be surprised if the council ignores you, or arrests you for working with Cerberus. Either way, Miranda will need to flush out her team before she''ll have time to head to the citadel, although she is your only ticket to get there, assuming she doesn't throw you off the ship first."

"Still mad about the Quarian I take it."

"Mad, livid is more like it, what's even worse is they gave us the information they could get out of Veetor making your insubordination justified, or so she claimed."

"What can I say, I'm just a charming guy."

"And apparently a little crazy, did you really use a sword against a mech?"

"Its point defences made my grenade launcher ineffective, and its armour was to thick for small arms."

"I like a man who can think outside of the normal perspectives, Denton, but try to remember that I have put you under Miranda's command, You are too valuable for her to leave behind, but to reckless to leave unsupervised it seems."

"I'll do what I can to stop the collectors, but after that I don't owe you anything right."

"You don't owe me anything now, we are merely two people willing to do what must be done to save the galaxy."


	2. Chapter 2

Eidos owns the Deus EX characters, and Bioware owns the Mass Effect characters.

Also, this chapter is from Miranda's perspective, I thought with her being the commander until Denton can either get his own ship or engineer a mutiny we should spend some time looking through her eyes.

Command Performance

It is a misconception to think that I want power. Power after all comes with responsibility, with strings, and expectations. Of course, my creation served to place certain strings upon me, so if I already had the responsibility I might as well take the power needed to see it through, even if I could fail. The captain's cabin was just a nice well equipped work area, designed to relieve the increased tension that come with being a commanding officer, besides it wasn't really that special compared to the bed room I grew up in.

In any case I wasn't here to rest, I was here because the reports on JC Denton and his nano augmentations were only accessible from 2 computer terminals and I didn't feel like spending time in the sick bay, even if Mr. Gardners cooking said otherwise. In retrospect the nano machines were my first clue that Liara had betrayed us and switch the bodies, nano augmentations haven't been seen since the Denton brothers cured the grey death. Revealing that the nano machines in their bodies were the same ones that caused the grey death had put the cork on that lamp long enough that by the time people were open to the idea again biotics had already surpassed it as the next big thing. The fact was that nano augmentation on the scale that I saw reviving Denton was inefficient in today's day and age. It wasn't that nano augmentation wasn't used, just not on this scale, heck the official text books would have said this scale wasn't possible until now, except that the textbook was written in order to create this man. I had too easily allowed the fact that they were proving invaluable in resurrecting the body to look more closely, a mistake I may not be able to correct.

Denton is naive, he seems to think that every alien wants to be friends with humans. I considered revealing that Denton had been created to merge with an AI to the next Quarian he saw just to show him how alien they were. Maybe I should save that surprise for later though, after all it'd probably attract the attention of the council. The use of AIs had been hard enough before the Reapers were revealed to be timeless sentient ships, even if the council is trying to pretend otherwise. In any case Omega would be the perfect place to cure him of his delusions about relying on the kindness of strange beings.

As if on cue EDI informed me of our arrival at the Omega station. Requisition list in hand, I made my way to the bridge to oversee docking, and smooth any ruffled feather's Mr. Morreau's protectiveness of 'his ship' may have caused.

"Miss Chambers, could you send agent Denton up, we'll docking shortly," I paged hoping that she had in fact gotten a chance to begin evaluating him.

"I haven't seen Denton at all," the comm responded in Miss Chambers tones. I was going to have to arrange for them to meet somehow it seemed, either that or wait until he broke down because of culture shock. As much fun as it might be to watch him slowly come unhinged the mission needed him to at least be sane, for him anyway. Besides keeping him in line would be easier with a psyche profile on hand.

"EDI, where's Denton right now?"

"Agent Denton is with operative Taylor in the cargo hold."

"Jacob, why are you in the cargo hold, we're docking with Omega in a few moments."

"Cerberus sent us the specs on a new Arc Cannon they thought would be useful, Denton and I are testing it out. We'll stop by the armoury to reload and meet you at the airlock." Jacob reassured me.

"Docking clamps in place ma'am." Mr. Moreau reported, I didn't remember feeling it, either I was distracted trying to get my team together or he was really good, and judging by his tone he wanted me to know he was that good. "A Zaeed Massani is waiting at the docks." EDI chimed in as I approached the cockpit.

Disembarking it was easy to spot Zaeed, even among the people of Omega he had the grizzled look of a man who had been forged on the battlefield rather than simply born, well that and his out of date cybernetic eye. When he glanced in my direction the Batarian he was with seemed to think I was distracting enough to enable his escape. He was very wrong, and his legs felt bad after Zaeed casually shot his knees out, while suggestively commenting "so you're the famous Miranda Lawson, if you're willing I could be convinced to refund some of the Illusive man's money."

"I'm not," I reassured him flatly.

"For the best I 'spose, most of the fee is in the form of an exchange of services anyway." He brushed off his defeat. "I should take this scum in before he stinks the joint up, you'll be talking to Aria I expect?" He left before I could even respond.

Without further ado we made our way to the afterlife and up to Aria's private booth, where Masani was already waiting. Before I even had a chance to get down to business Aria started "you've got some nerve to turn up here Cerberus."

"Pardon me," I stumbled.

"So you don't know anything about the plague, which just happens to target every species except humans and vorcha? A plague that doesn't match anything from any of the species it affects, and so must have been engineered. An engineered plague that will ultimately strengthen the position of humans on Omega, doesn't sound like something Cerberus might do at all does it? On top of that you show up with a lackey who's not in a single data base."

"Check UNATCO, look for Denton, it's a long story. As to this plague, I have no idea what you're talking about, I'm just here to recruit Mordin Solus' scientific expertise." I replied coolly.

"Funny thing, Mordin happens to be in the same sector as the plague. Supposedly he's close to a cure, still needs some way to administer it though. Assuming the residents don't kill him for being a human sympathiser." She reasoned in a bored tone.

"One more thing, you wouldn't know where to find Archangel?"

"In the obituaries by tomorrow would be my guess. Archangel finally managed to get the mercenaries around here mad enough that they decided to team up and take him down. The sign up is over there with the blue suns, but I don't think he'll last long enough for you to get to your appointment with the doctor." She dismissed us with a bored gesture.

As we made our way down the stairs Jacob piped up "I guess we can knock Archangel off the recruiting drive."

"Not necessarily," Denton countered.

"Mordin Solus is the only free agent with the skills to come up with a counter measure for the seeker swarms, and even if we could get Arch Angel out before the people in his neighbour hood get to the clinic, how many people would die?" Jacob replied indignantly.

"That wasn't what I meant, actually, one of us could go extract Archangel from whatever trouble he's got himself into while the rest stop the plague." Denton corrected.

"I suppose you think you're the best man for the extraction of Archangel of course? That I'll let you go off by yourself for the sake of one man," I accused.

"Zaeed and I are the only real candidates for it unless you think the Blue Suns will just tell you where to go and hope that Cerberus doesn't feel like claiming their prize. Every person in this bar knows the two of you, if I'm reading their eyes right. A lot of them know Zaeed too, but he's just another mercenary as far as they know."

"Actually Denton, the Blue Suns and I go way back, and as much I'd like to save Archangel just to piss them off, they know that." Zaeed Massanni added.

"So. I am the only one for the job, and you'll let me do it because you need Archangel, just like you need me," Denton smugly summarised.

"I need you, but I'm going to send you, alone, against three mercenary groups?" I countered.

"Sure," Denton responded before turning toward the recruiting area. Just before the doors closed he added, "we could make it a race if you want."

"Let's find that doctor, I have a head ache," I ordered Jacob and Massani.


	3. Chapter 3

Still don't own the rights to deus ex, or mass effect, so this is still not intended for profit.

We're back to Denton's perspective again. I edited chapter 2 a little after publishing it. Mostly it was to add that Zaeed has a clearly cybernetic eye. So if I have him shoot lasers out of his cybernetic eye, it was there all along. Not that I actually plan to have Zaeed shoot lasers out of his eye.

Falling Angel

By the time the doors closed I could feel the dull hum of the info link in my skull, I wondered if info links were common enough that Miss Lawson would know it had a tell. I decided to leave that for later, I had an interview with the blue suns, looking for some very temporary employees.

"You certainly look capable, maybe a little too capable. Why would you want to sign up as cannon fodder for Archangel?" The Batarian recruiter inquired.

"He's the one who put me out of a job, so I figure I might just return the favour, with interest." I decided was the best answer.

"Standard fee is 500 credits. You get paid when the job is done. AND NO this does not make you blue suns. You're a FREELANCER end of story." I realised then that he'd just be making small talk, probably been at this to long to be suspicious any more, good timing on my part.

"Archangel really stepped in it this time huh."

"You got that right, I don't know where this freak is from but on Omega you play ball with Tarrak and the others, or you find yourself on the wrong side of an airlock."

"Tarrak's not one to play nice with others is he?" I asked without allowing my hope to creep into my voice. I suspected I was right but the last thing I needed was the mercenary groups being best friends, and really co-operating on a plan to take down Archangel.

"No, but neither are Jarroth and Garm, so its just like a family aint it. They each got their own little plan, hopefully none of 'em decided to get caught in the crossfire, but I guess to take down Archangel its worth the risk"

"So where's this family re-union going down?"

"Archangel's base of operations. He's been hiding right under our noses. I can't tell you exactly where you're going, but we'll get you there. Just head out of Afterlife and take a right to the transport depot. One of our boys will take you from there." I decided I'd held up the line to the noose long enough, and turned to leave.

The Batarian pressed the comm and ushered in the next meat shield. Which was a kid, with a hat and a vest for protection and one pistol. "Aren't you a little young for this?"

"Aren't you a little old to still be freelancing?" Definitely a teenager, I briefly considered letting him sign up but decided not to hold puberty against the kid. "You even know how to use that?" I gestured to the pistol at his hip.

"I grew up on Omega didn't I? Course I know how to use a gun."

"How much?"

"For the pistol? I had to pay premium credits for this thing, a Cerniflex Hand Cannon."

_That would be an upgrade to your current arsenal agent,_ EDI's voice noted over infolink. "I'll take it, 500 credits." _That model is worth 150 credits agent._

"Really, sure!" The boy enthused, clearly missing that he wouldn't be able to sign up without a gun, oh well c'est la vie. Lucky thing I'd managed to win 500 credits from Jacob while we were on the range or I'd have to owe this punk a favour. Taking my new hand cannon I turned the old one into omnigel, after EDI confirmed it was the real deal of course, which got turned into a few LAMs, which I added to my collection, still a little small for my taste but EDI and Miranda wouldn't let me take more. Some people just don't appreciate the versatility of LAMs ,like wall climbing.

One air car ride later and I was at the mercenaries' base camp. I was greeted by another Batarian "It's about time they sent me someone who looks like they can actually fight," he said. "They tell you what you're up against?"

"Not really," I conceded.

"Wouldn't get many recruits if we did I 'spose. Archangel's holed up in a building at the end of the boulevard over there," he continued, pointing off in the distance behind him. "He's got superior position and the only way in is over a very exposed bridge. It's a killing ground. But he's getting tired, making mistakes. We'll have him soon enough."

"The bridge is the only way in?" I probed, hoping they hadn't covered all of Archangel's exits.

"No, just the fastest. He collapsed the tunnels and sealed the doors. We got a couple crews working on clearing the tunnels but it'll be a while until their through. If everything goes right though he'll be dead and buried 'fore then. If not maybe the gunship'll get him." With any luck they'd dig through just in time to let me pass, I hoped Archangel had a stealth vest for himself. Wait, "why not use the gunship now?"

"Already been tried, he knew just where to hit it, wasn't even a fair fight for us. Still it got our guys into position, and we'll be able to patch it up."

"Position for what?"

"To blow his house down. We just need you and the other freelancers to keep him busy long enough for our guys to set the charges."

"Guess I'd better hurry and get slaughtered then." I commented as I started off towards the bridge. I happened across a data pad with some information about plans for attack on Aria, which I decided to keep in case the collateral damage of this rescue spilled over into the fucking with Aria category. Then I ran straight into a YMIR mech like on the colony, except mercifully powered down. Looking at the terminal I noticed the mechanic had forgot to log out, and since no one was paying attention to little old me, I decided to take a look at its brain. It was about this time I realised I'd need a refresher course on operating systems of the 23rd century. I probably could have got EDI to do it, but that'd be admitting I had a problem. Taking another look around I noticed the wiring between the head and the body was still exposed, so I did my best to surreptitiously remove them, and close up the panels.

Since I was about ready to start the hard part I decided to remind Miranda of our race indirectly. "So Joker, any suggestions for Miranda's wardrobe after I finish up here," I 'accidentally' broadcast on the team frequency.

"I don't know, I've always been partial to a cheerleader outfit," came his response before he realized it was still on the team frequency.

"Don't even try it Denton," came Miranda's icy voice over the comm. I wanted to bait her into making a wager of her own but I was coming up with the rest of the freelancers, so I let her rant to joker while I concocted a plan to tell Archangel I was on his side so he'd let me cross faster. I settled for letting everyone else jump over the barricade first, and then placing LAM against the barricade. If I was lucky he'd see it and do the math, as it turned out I got lucky. I proceeded to lay a few more LAMs as I crossed since they'd still have to use the bridge until they got those tunnels open. Drawing the sword I cut a path through the freelancers' until they started turning to try and retreat. Unfortunately the first freelancer to try retreating decided this while I was focused on closing the last few steps with his buddy, who I was forced to use as a human shield while I looked for cover. To give credit to the company he bought the armour from it might have saved him if I hadn't killed him just before.

As it stood I needed to rely on Archangel to keep the freelancers from being able to focus their attention on me, I was well armed but my hardsuit's shields needed to be recharged, good thing I had an ion LAM to fry the detonators on the bombs meant to bring the house down. Between that and the confusion my LAMs on the bridge had caused I was able to just get into the shelter of the building Archangel called home in time to see them deploy the YMIR mech, which finished the bridge off when the power core overloaded and blew up. I was starting to wonder if there was some labour strife at the manufacturing plant of security robots when Miranda's voice came tauntingly over the infolink "Miss Chambers, any preferences on agent Denton's attire after we rescue him?"


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer**: I don't own the characters presented here. Also I'm sorry about the wait for the shortest chapter yet, I kept rewriting the first bit.

Denton's perspective still.

Labyrinth

I made my way up to the second floor of Archangel's hideout, carefully, a mercenary may have slipped inside after all. As I came up on the room which I presumed Archangel had set up as his sniper's nest I took the precaution of putting my gun away, I wanted to make it clear that I was on his side, I think. "Give me a good reason not to shoot you?"

"I'm here to recruit you."

"For who?"

"How 'bout we go find a nice quiet spot to talk about that," a sniper obliged me by taking a pot shot at Archangel, it didn't work.

"Why is it humans here angel and think that under all this armour I'm a female?" He groused collecting a few LAMs and tossing them to me.

"Why does everyone just assume my plans all involve explosives?" I countered directing him to follow me down into his lobby, where I did in fact use the LAMs to replace the detonators my EMP had shorted out, I mean I have had plans that didn't involve explosions they just weren't as successful as the ones that did.

"Call it a hunch," came archangel's response, "you're gonna drop the building on top of as many mercenaries as you can, make it look like they got me, and limit their paths of pursuit."

"If we're lucky." The bot overloading on the bridge hadn't exactly been my plan, but it might just have made things come together. _EDI can your sensors penetrate the tunnels under us?_

_ No, communication will also become difficult._ It was my lucky day, and then an alarm sounded and Christmas came early, the mercenaries had just finished clearing out the tunnels. The trick was going to be sneaking into the tunnels, which was where reality decided to assert itself once more. Opening the first door we found, unfortunately proved that the alarm was not quite as prompt as it should have been. There were lots and lots of Vorcha already through. After spotting a Varren stalking the crates Archangel showed off some more hardware, a gas grenade with a gas that would drive the Varren crazy and make them turn on whatever was closer, which happened to be the Vorcha. Apparently when you tick off the blood pack as a hobby you learn to deal with their pets.

While the Vorcha were distracted we managed to sneak into the caves of the Asteroid that Omega had affixed itself to, and just in time to beat the buzzer. Noticing that Archangel had the type of legs that were great for sprinting, I activated the microfibral muscles in my legs and burst ahead, hoping to beat the remaining mercenaries back out of the tunnels. Archangel being taller than I stayed right behind me the muzzle of his assault rifle right next to my head. We shot anything that was directly in our path, and Archangel kept throwing LAMs, destroying the tunnel behind us on top of the mercenaries we missed.

Of course most of the mercenaries in the tunnels were from the blood pack, which meant they were all Krogan. Dropping the cave on their head didn't so much stop them as just really piss them off. Lucky for us Krogan's are not really built for speed, being 600 pounds may give you durability but it'll make sprinting difficult. I wasn't quite sure how they were at longer distances but I was really in the mood to find out, especially since dropping the roof on them had done nothing to improve their reasoning skills, as demonstrated by the fact that most simply left their guns behind to make chase. When we came finished wading through a shallow but large puddle, I decided it was time to field test the Arc Projector., especially since my bio electric energy was starting to dry up, besides I could see a vehicle up ahead that could be used for an escape.

Turning off my microfibral leg muscles I took a step to my left planting my foot on a 90 degree angle, and drew out the Arc Projector as my momentum twisted my body to face the oncoming Krogans. I had forgotten that it could take some time to charge up however, and lost a few pounds of water weight as the Krogan's continued to close the distance. When the weapon finally beeped indicating it was ready to fire, I smell the Krogan's breath, before I ended his charge with electric death, which jumped from Krogan to Krogan, until they were all twitching on the ground. Archangel took the opportunity to finish the job putting a bullet through each head in turn, until the last one beat him in getting up. This Krogan had also been smart enough to keep his gun this whole chase. A shotgun which he promptly introduced to Archangel.

They were way to close and the shot destroyed a section of Archangel's helmet with one pellet which continued through Archangel's jaw. "I've waited a long time for this Archangel, and your new friend isn't man enough to stop me." The world came to a crawl as two more shots pieced the Turians armour, while I poured as much fire as my assault rifle would allow into the centre mass of the Krogan who refused to die. Rather than replace the heat sink, I simply caught Archangel's gun as it fell from his fingers and continued the assault, the Krogan continuing his march upon me. When the gun became to hot to hold onto I drop that as well and fell back to the old stand by the sword.

"I'll give you credit human, you've got a quad to go toe to toe with a Krogan, when you meet whatever god you humans believe in tell him Garm'll vouch for ye." Garm bellowed as he closed the distance methodically. Taking in a deep breath I readied my feet, and took a close look at the chest plate, the bullets had left a neat hole in both the chest piece and the monster beneath, although not deep enough to kill him. It was enough though that when the distance was finally closed I could drive the sword all the way thorough. Being a Krogan this didn't kill him, and I was sent hurtling across the cavern, I had used the last of my bio energy to harden my skin at the last second and absorb the shock of the massive form arm he had used to slap me away. It got his attention when I stood back up and drew a bead with the Arc Projector. It was a race between the Krogan's steady gate and the Arc Projector slow charge, the Arc Projector won, barely. The sword acted as a lightning rod for the weapon heating it up and melting his second heart as the electricity raced down to the ground firing the muscles in his legs and sending him backwards.

I let the Arc Projector fall from my grip as I let out a deep breath, and then I was reminded of the situation by the sound of someone clapping. I was pretty sure Archangel wasn't the clapping sort, let alone in a condition to do so, so I drew my Carniflex Hand Cannon on the source of the sound as I made my way back towards Archangel to asses his condition. Looking down I could see that he was still alive, but not for much longer. "I'd say you'd better not waste time arguing with me," came a familiar voice, that belonged to a man I remembered leaving in the care of the Illusive Man, Wilson's.


End file.
